Expression of value added product in wheat. Wheat is an important food crop due to nutritional value of its seeds. Advances in development of reliable methods for plant genetic transformation now make it possible to apply genetic engineering to the improvement of this important crop. In this linkage application, we aim to introduce a gene for a value added nutraceutical product in elite cultivars of wheat. The successful outcome of the proposed project will lead to the development of value ad ....Expression of value added product in wheat. Wheat is an important food crop due to nutritional value of its seeds. Advances in development of reliable methods for plant genetic transformation now make it possible to apply genetic engineering to the improvement of this important crop. In this linkage application, we aim to introduce a gene for a value added nutraceutical product in elite cultivars of wheat. The successful outcome of the proposed project will lead to the development of value added wheat varieties that cannot be achieved through conventional breeding and will provide Australian industry competitive advantage in rapidly growing world wide market for new health promoting foods.Read moreRead less
Expanding the gene pool of canola (Brassica napus) by introgressing valuable genes from related species. Canola is a high value export crop from Australia, and an important rotational crop which improves sustainability of agriculture through a disease and weed break for cereal crops. While breeders have improved quality, disease resistance and adaptation of canola to Australian conditions over the past 30 years, this has reduced genetic variation to dangerously low levels. Wide crossing with d ....Expanding the gene pool of canola (Brassica napus) by introgressing valuable genes from related species. Canola is a high value export crop from Australia, and an important rotational crop which improves sustainability of agriculture through a disease and weed break for cereal crops. While breeders have improved quality, disease resistance and adaptation of canola to Australian conditions over the past 30 years, this has reduced genetic variation to dangerously low levels. Wide crossing with drought tolerant Brassica carinata (Ethiopean mustard) will help to alleviate this problem. New uses of biotechnology, combined with molecular genetics, will help to overcome species barriers to introduce useful new genes into canola for Australian canola breeders.Read moreRead less
Mining the rice genome for alleles of value in rice improvement. Food production and quality are determined by the varieties of food plants that are used in agriculture. A high quality rice genome sequence became available in 2005. This project will mine the data in the sequence to identify genes associated with key production and quality traits. New technologies and strategies will be developed and applied. The discoveries will be of value for the model crop, rice and for other cereal and foo ....Mining the rice genome for alleles of value in rice improvement. Food production and quality are determined by the varieties of food plants that are used in agriculture. A high quality rice genome sequence became available in 2005. This project will mine the data in the sequence to identify genes associated with key production and quality traits. New technologies and strategies will be developed and applied. The discoveries will be of value for the model crop, rice and for other cereal and food crops. Human health benefits from the availability of technologies to combine desirable nutritional traits and attractiveness to humans. This ensures healthy foods will be produced and consumed.Read moreRead less
Accelerating the genetic improvement of grain legumes for Australia by developing doubled haploid technology for field pea and chickpea. Doubled haploid technology is used in many broad acre crop species to accelerate cultivar development and create homozygous populations for genetic mapping. Field pea and chickpea have been unresponsive to this technique but a recent breakthrough by UWA researchers has resulted in haploid pro-embryos from in vitro cultured immature pollen. A barrier to further ....Accelerating the genetic improvement of grain legumes for Australia by developing doubled haploid technology for field pea and chickpea. Doubled haploid technology is used in many broad acre crop species to accelerate cultivar development and create homozygous populations for genetic mapping. Field pea and chickpea have been unresponsive to this technique but a recent breakthrough by UWA researchers has resulted in haploid pro-embryos from in vitro cultured immature pollen. A barrier to further embryo maturation has been identified, which we propose to overcome using powerful microscopy tools to elucidate haploid embryology processes. This information will be applied to develop world-first in vitro doubled haploid protocols for these species, which will facilitate the development and accelerated delivery to industry of better adapted, high yielding cultivars.Read moreRead less